This disclosure relates generally to generating search results for people, e.g., a display area for member(s) of a social networking service.
Search engines identify resources (e.g., images, audio, video, Web pages, text, documents) that are relevant to a user's needs and present information about the resources in a manner that is useful to the user. A search engine may be used to conduct a search of the Internet, the corpus of a social network, or a combination of the two. A search engine receives a search query from a user, consults an appropriate search index to identify subject matter relevant to the search query, and obtains search results for presentation, e.g., in a Web browser.
Social networks permit members to post information about themselves and to communicate with other people, e.g., friends, family, and co-workers. Social networks also permit members to write, and post content, e.g., blogs, stories, messages, and the like, for public or private consumption.
Members of a social networking service may also author, comment on, or otherwise interact with, content that is not hosted by the social networking service. In this context, such content may include, but is not limited to, public and private content that is accessible through the World Wide Web.